AREA SALES JOB LURING STUDENTS WITH BIG-BUCK SPIEL

David Hill of Hill and Associates appears to be offering college students one of the more lucrative summer jobs in the area.

Hill and Associates is using the bait of $9.75 per hour, advertised on cardboard signs, as an incentive for calling 651-4200. That number puts the prospective worker in touch with a recorded message.

The message says Hill and Associates is affiliated with Vector Marketing Inc., which, the recording states, has a 46-year history and 300 locations worldwide.

Actually, the company Cutco, which manufactures the cutlery and hunting and fishing knives that Hill and Associates sells, has been around for 46 years.

The recorded message also provides information about how to apply for a sales or service position.

The company is recruiting applicants from Perry, Bollinger, Stoddard, Scott, Cape Girardeau and Mississippi counties in Missouri and some counties in Southern Illinois.

After an appointment is made, Hill meets the person for an interview in a temporary office at 1301 N. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau.

Hill said workers are paid $9.75 per sales call instead of by the hour and must pay a security deposit of $129 for items in a sample kit that includes cutlery used in a kitchen or restaurant.

"Most of the people we hire don't have much sales experience, so $9.75 per call is the best way to get them started," Hill said. "If you make 10 calls and don't sell anything, you still get paid $9.75 per call."

The company checks to make sure the salesperson actually made the calls.

Hill said a salesperson is also able to work on a commission basis. The security deposit is returned to the workers if they decide they no longer want to work for the company.

Thad Ortman, who is majoring in English, history and secondary education at Southeast Missouri State University, has been working for Hill and Associates since the beginning of June.

"I went around town looking for jobs and as a last resort came here," Ortman said. "I like the idea of being independent and this job gives me that freedom. I can work as hard or as slow as I want."

Ortman said his best week has netted $3,000 in sales. "I made that on about 25 appointments," he said.

Nickole Keller, who is from Gordonville and attends Southwest Missouri State University, worked for Cutco Inc. last summer.

"Last year I worked for the same company, but I had a different boss," she said. The name of the company changes with each new office manager.

Hill said a student opens an office in a city and becomes the manager for a 14- to 16-week period. Because his last name is Hill, he is calling the company Hill and Associates.

"I'm a student at St. Louis University, so this is just for the summer," he said. "But I might end up working for the company full-time after I graduate."

Keller became the third most productive saleswoman in the nation last summer. "I made about $14,000 last summer and then an additional $5,000 to $6,000 when I worked for a branch office in Springfield while going to school in the fall," she said. Keller generated $50,000 in sales to make $20,000. Because she was the third highest, Keller also won a college scholarship worth $800.

"I made a lot of money at it, but I ended up nearly burning out," she said. "They sent me to a lot of cities to accept the awards I won; I liked that. But I also got involved to the point where I probably did push myself too hard."

Keller still sells the product, this time for Hill and Associates, but she works at a much slower pace.

"I sell it when I want," she said. "I had enough customers from last year that they just order something once a month and then I turn in the orders to Dave Hill."

Both Ortman and Keller said they are only selling knives as a summer job. Both plan to have careers outside the business world.

The Better Business Bureau said it has only been aware of Vector since 1989. There has only been one customer complaint made in the St. Louis and Illinois areas and that was resolved to the customer's satisfaction.

Donnie Shuck, employment services supervisor for the Missouri Job Service office in Cape Girardeau, said he has never heard of Hill and Associates but did receive a few calls asking about the reputation of the company.

"I don't know anything about them, but if they're offering $9.75 an hour, that would have to be a good summer job for this area," Shuck said. "Of course, the best sales jobs would be the ones that pay by commission because performance would dictate the salary."

Shuck added that most of the temporary jobs in the area pay in the range of $4.25 to $6. "For those kind of jobs, we can't seem to find enough people to fill all of the openings," Shuck said, noting that unemployment is at 3.5 percent in Cape Girardeau County. Unemployment in Cape County was at 3.9 percent at this time last year.

The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations lists 25 of the top jobs that will be hot from 1995-2000.

Retail sales jobs rank fifth on the list. The number of retail sales jobs is expected to grow by 7,418 in Missouri over the next five years.

Sales and supervisor jobs rank 15th on the list. The growth of sales and supervisor jobs is expected to be 4,315.

"Depending on how much time and effort you want to spend on education, the best jobs are going to be in the health care field," Shuck said. Some 12,327 jobs for nursing aides and orderlies are expected to become available in Missouri in the next five years. Nursing jobs, which bring a significantly higher salary, should increase by some 10,696 through the year 2,000.